Citywalks

Intersections are physical, conceptual, psychological and philosophical spaces where people, ideas and objects interact. Intersections mark meeting points in our cities and lives. The purpose of TIME_FRAME Durban / 2010 is to explore the intersections of space, place and people in the context of the 2010 World Cup from a grounded and people-centred perspective. With funding from the Mondriaan Foundation, dala (www.dala.org.za) hosted 10 creative practitioners for a 10 day new media experiment in Durban: Miguel Petchkovsky (Angola / Netherlands), Heiner Holtappels (Netherlands) Elena Perez (Spain / Netherlands), Mayura Subhedar (India / Netherlands), Walter Langelaar (Netherlands), Lilia Perez Romero (Mexico / Netherlands), Doung Jahangeer (South Africa), Rike Sitas (South Africa), Dean Henning (South Africa), Zen Marie (South Africa).

Link to the project website
Link to the blog
Link to the photos

Summary of Activities:

>> CityWalk // Friday 2 July 2010

The project started with a walk. The CityWalk Initiative is an ongoing dala initiative focused on walking as a methodology for exploring, experiencing and theorizing the city. It is a socio-spatial and philosophical performance with the city. Ultimately it is a critical engagement with how people live, work, play and move in and through the city. Tapping into a pedestrian network between an informal settlement (Cato Manor) and the inner city transport hub (Warwick Junction), the CityWalk is a catalyst discussing a myriad of urban issues. Around 500 000 people move through these kinds of spaces on a daily basis, yet they are often perceived as invisible or no-go zones by the middle classes. For the purpose of TIME_FRAME Durban / 2010, the CityWalk became an entry point into the intersection of space, place, people, art and technology. In the interest of more democratic processes, the purpose was to locate the project in the public realm of the streets as opposed to in formal studio spaces or galleries. Too often digital / new media artists spend a great deal of their time in doors and behind computers. The CityWalk not only introduced the visiting artists to Durban (and specifically spaces they may not have otherwise explored), it also opened up the possibilities of exploring new and existing media practices in public space.


>> Artist Presentations // Saturday 3 & Sunday 4 July 2010

These two sessions revolved around the artists presenting their practice, focusing specifically on projects relevant to TIME_FRAME Durban / 2010. The presentation sessions also involved a reflection on the CityWalk, as well as brainstorming and discussing possible collaborations and interventions. A number of key themes that emerged out of the CityWalk experience were identified as starting points. This process kick started the week’s working.


>> Artist Lectures // Wednesday 7 July 2010

One of the partnering organisations of TIME_FRAME Durban / 2010 was Vega (http://vegaschool.com), a local private brand communications university. As part of the relationship, the visiting artists gave a half day seminar on their work. The attendees included interested members of the public, students and a number of prominent professionals working in related fields. This was most relevant for students studying in the field of Multimedia Design. The feedback from these students was very positive, and has opened up their possibility to imagine new forms of working.

>> Public presentation at KZNSA // Saturday 10 July 2010

The KwaZulu-Natal Society for the Arts (KZNSA) is a prominent commercial gallery in Durban. The KZNSA hosted an evening of artist presentations at their premises. The event started with the presentation of the first part of Zen Marie’s work in collaboration with a local mini bus taxi operator. Following this, Heiner Holtappels presented on the work of NIMk and played some examples of their collection. Finally, the artists presented the work they had been doing in lieu of the exhibition opening on Tuesday.


>> Exhibition at DAG // Tuesday 13 July 2010

The exhibition at the Durban Art Gallery (DAG) showcased the final work that had been compiled during the course of the project. The work was installed in the Red Room in the gallery providing an interesting and critical counterpoint to and dialogue with the other exhibitions on at the time. The exhibition was opened by Jenny Stretton (Acting Director of DAG), Heiner Holtappels (NIMk) and Doung Jahangeer & Rike Sitas (dala). The next section details what was exhibited.

More info:
The Media City is part of the TIME FRAME project, developed by the Netherlands Media Art Institute and Miguel Petchkovsky. TIME FRAME investigates the intersection of media, technology, art and society in the current contemporary art practices in Africa and Latin America. This project functions as a platform that stimulates and promotes sustainable media art training, discussion, production and the transit of new artwork in Europe, Africa and Latin America.

Porgramme manager: Elena Catalina Pérez


CityWalks workshop was made possible with the kind support of the Mondriaan Foundation.

The Media City

Link to the programme
Link to the photos
Link to the blog


From March 22 – April 3, 2010, the Netherlands Media Art Institute and Time Frame will host ‘The Media City’ workshop, dedicated to the exploration of narrative architecture and social interaction on public spaces.

The Media City is a specialized project development workshop for urban projections, taking place in Amsterdam. From March 22 to April 3, eight international artists from Sao Paulo, Lima, Durban, Douala and the Netherlands will be given the opportunity to explore the possibilities of visual programming interfaces for urban facades, and develop their own site specific concept.

The Media City investigates architecture as narrative and social interaction in public space. It is investigating how these specific languages, spaces of cultural meaning, can be translated into media art projects, in which similarities from African and Latin American cities can be found and re-interpreted in Amsterdam.

Architecture plays an important part in the formation of national identities and, hence, the project holds a great potential of allowing artistic examinations into national boundaries, similarities and trans-national visions.

Tutor: Alexis Anastasiou, Director / VJ of Visualfarm (BR)

Selected artists for the workshop: Gloria Arteaga (PE),Lucas Bambozzi(BR), Edwin van der Heide (NL), Doung Jahangeer (ZA), Walter Langelaar (NL), Goddy Leye (CM), Marnix de Nijs (NL) and Mayura Subhedar (IN/NL).

There are possibilities for artists and art students to participate in the workshop.

Participation: drinks and lunch € 10 per day.
Please send your CV and short motivation (max100 words) to elena@nimk.nl.
Please specify your level of expertise on the following software: After Effects, Premiere, Photoshop, Final Cut, Modul8 and Pandora's Box.

This event includes three semi-public lectures. These evening sessions with artists' presentations will try to gather as much expertise and viewpoints as possible, and will foster discussions about the workshop theme among artists, theoreticians, cultural workers and audience. The sessions are interlinked and designed to initiate an ongoing discussion among the participants (English spoken).

These three evening sessions are open to the audience:

1. Tuesday, March 23, 20:00 – 22:00: Gloria Arteaga, Edwin van der Heide and Doung Jahangeer

2. Monday, March 29, 20:00 – 22:00: Alexi Anastasieu, Goddy Leye and Mayura Subhedar

3. Thursday, April 1, 20:00 – 22:00: Marnix de Nijs, Lucas Bambozzi and Walter Langelaar.

Admission is free, English spoken.

More info:
The Media City is part of the TIME FRAME project, developed by the Netherlands Media Art Institute. TIME FRAME investigates the intersection of media, technology, art and society in the current contemporary art practices in Africa and Latin America. This project functions as a platform that stimulates and promotes sustainable media art training, discussion, production and the transit of new artwork in Europe, Africa and Latin America.

Programme Manager: Elena Catalina Pérez

The Media City is made possible with the kind support of the Mondriaan Foundation.

The bodily turn - An evening conversation on interface studies

Link to the project site
Link to the video

At this evening session the Interface Studies Group will present the ‘interface’ as the centre of technology mediated experience and will reveal trends, notions and tangible prototypes that stretch and challenge the still predominant screen – spectator arrangement.

In contrast with traditional cinema and TV, in what may be called the ‘post-PC’ era, mobile and haptic interfaces and Reactive Environments are putting the embodied presence of the user back on stage. By engaging other senses and modalities such as touch, voice, movement and mobility and by taking into account the user’s sensorial and affective dimensions, new forms of interaction, knowledge production, and forms of sociality are made possible.

Program:

20:00 Doors open with VJ+DJ Emile Zile. Artist and Performer.

20:30 Welcome by Heiner Holtappels, Director of NIMk.

20:35 Jan Simons – ‘Beyond the desktop’. Presentation of the Interface Studies research group and lecture.

Media Theory author and researcher, Associate Professor ASCA/UvA.

21:55 Ben Salem - ‘Designing reactive environments’.

Architect, Assistant Professor TU/e. Going beyond Ambient Intelligence into Enhanced Environment.

21:15 Break

21:30 Lilia Pérez - ‘Just Touch’. An overview on touch as a paradigm for human-computer interaction.

Digital Artist, Interaction Designer and Researcher, PhD Candidate

ASCA/UvA

21:45 Jorge Alves Lino - ‘Responsive environments in the context of public space and large scale installation’

Concept Designer, PhD Candidate TU/e

22:00 Noam Knoller - ‘Interface Visions of Storytelling’

Interaction designer/artist, filmmaker, PhD Candidate ASCA/UvA

22:15 Karen Lancel - ‘TELE_TRUST in the context of artistic interfaces’

Digital artist, PhD Candidate ASCA/UvA.

22:30 Feel the bodily turn! – Drinks, Music and Interaction!

After the lectures, works in progress and interesting prototypes will be presented by guest artists and designers and made available for the public to try.

Special guest Installation: Social Soundmachine - feeling the music!

by Ramon Schreuder (Lewis & Davis – studio for experience design)

“Social Soundmachine is an interactive tabletop, on which people can create electronic music together. It uses a special multi-touch surface with a number of tangible game pieces.

Credits:

The Interface Studies Group is a recently formed interdisciplinary research collaboration between the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Their research aims to investigate how current human-computer interface technologies and culture affect each other

Curtor: Elena Catalina Pérez

Kindly supported by EACEA and AFK

Graphics by Hugo Herrera Tobón

_______________________________________________________________________

Event details:

Location: Netherlands Media Art Institute (NIMk)

Keizersgracht 264, Amsterdam. www.nimk.nl

Date: Friday June 18, 2010

Doors Open 8:00 p.m.

Program Begins 8:30 p.m. (in English)

Entrance free, Please Register at elena@salto.nl

De Hoeksteen Live! Special Edition for Media Playgrounds

Link to the project site
Link to the video


A very special live broadcasting experience at NIMk on the night of the 12th of November! From 11pm to morning we’ll broadcast a number of performances, debates, artists' interviews, artists presentations and film-screening program.

1. Debate 'Group Marriage' by Francisco Camacho + 'Group Marriage' video
Artist Francisco Camacho seeks ways in which his work can exist within official social channels. He intends to gather 40,000 signatures for his Group Marriages Petition, submit it to the Dutch Lower House, and gain legal status for group marriage in the Netherlands. Francisco is a fellow research at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunst in Amsterdam. With the participation of: Jan Patternotte from D66; Dr. Geert Hekma, professor of gay and lesbian studies at UvA; Rimme Rypkema from Groepshuwelijken, a LNBi's representer and More!

2. Web3 Live Performance by 'Meta Lord', 'The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse' and 'Second Front'
Avatars 'Ze Moo' and 'Meta Lord' will perform live together with global artist collectives 'The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse' and 'Second Front'. Members collaborate from locations all over the planet and are using the world's largest user-created virtual world Second Life as a platform.

3. Free interventions with performances, debates, artists' interviews, presentations and video conferences. Constant Dullart, Rosa Menkman (nl), Goto80 (se), Marnix de Nijs (nl), www.evdh.net/ Edwin van der Heide] (nl) media artist awarded by Witteveen+Bos prijs 2009, Raúl Marroquín (nl), David Garcia (uk), Chris Wainright (uk), Carlos Cuéllar (co/us), Elizabeth Losh, ...More to be confirmed.

Attendance by invitation only. Close event.

This program will be broadcasted by Salto TV A1 and Second Live. See links below.

Broadcast by SALTO. Turn on your TV!
Cable channel 39+, UPC digital 715
Watch it at online TV: www.salto.nl/tv/televisie_A1.asp# Salto Online
Follow it at Second Life:
instructions on how to join these events interactive online: mass.live.nu
All interventions will be uploaded later in our video archive: BMS

Media Playgrounds goes Radio!
For Media Playgrounds DFM RTV INT will be broadcasted on the Amsterdam airwaves (FM cable
104.6, air FM 99.4) during all open slots of SALTO's Wereld FM. Live connections with stations like
Resonance FM (London), Freies Radio Wien (Vienna) a.o.
Listen to it at Radio Wereld. From 4th December to 13th December ,11pm- morning):
www.salto.nl/radio/radio_WFM.asp#


Curation: Elena Catalina Pérez

This project is supported by EACEA, AFK and NIMk
Special Thanks to: Meta.Live.Nu, PLANETART, DFM RTV INT, Archipel.nu, Virtual Holland, Freeteam, Beamsystems and all collaborating volunteers.

Media Playgrounds: Artistic Investigations On the Future Of Old-Media

Link to the project site
Link to the video

MEDIA PLAYGROUNDS presents artistic and creative ways of dealing with broadcast media, from community media practitioners, professional artists to young creatives. This event is part of ‘Broadcast Media Scupltures’ program and takes place simultaneously in Amsterdam, London, Vienna, Budapest and Sofia.

Master Classes Workshops
Friday 11 December. 1:30pm - 5:30pm

Media channels, platforms and formats impose strict rules on how you can play with them. This afternoon you will be inspired by artists that have developed new insight through free media experimentation, tactical media and the ‘art of campaigning’.

*Heiner Holtappels (de/nl)
The director of NIMk will give an introduction to Media Playgrounds.

1. Raul Marroquín (co/nl) ‘Electronic media and visual arts 1968 – 2009, from experimental film to cross media’
Raúl Marroquín is one of the pioneers of European video art, co-founder of Time Based Arts (nl) and founder of De Hoeksteen Live!

2. David Garcia (uk) ‘Faith in Exposure’
An exploration of the concept of artists as commentators and activists intervening in the news events of the day. David Garcia is the Dean of Chelsea College of Art & Design in London (uk) and founder of The Next Five Minutes festival (nl).

3. MauzZ (nl) 3D web interactive television
MauZ will talk about the 3D web (Second Life a.o.), as the ultimate interactive television of the early 21st century.

4. Peter Krapp (us), 'Of Games and Gestures: Machinima and the suspensions of animation'// (Skype conference from California)
Instead of reducing machinima to fan culture or to contributions to an oral history of videogames, this lecture seeks to show how machinima’s gestures may grant access to gaming’s historical conditions of possibility, and how it offers links to a comparative horizon that informs, changes, and fully participates in video game culture.
Peter Krapp is an Associate Professor of Film & Media Studies at the University of California, Irvine. He teaches media history, digital culture, and media theory. In his writing, he pursues interests in cultural memory and non-linear media, in the history & theory of gadgets, games and simulations, and in cinematic and digital representations of north and south pole regions.

Video Screening
Friday 11 December. 8:30pm-10:30 pm

Media Playground invites you for a Friday night session where you can explore some remarkable artistic approaches, consequences and interpretations of the online moving image and live cinema.

The best of Machinima, compiled by Peter Krapp (us) and Chantal Harvey (nl), Truth or Consequences premiere! by Francisco Camacho (co/nl), Visual Foreign Correspondents Berlin introduced by Nanette Hoogslag (nl), Oog’s initiator and curator.

Current Exhibition at NIMk: VERSIONS: ‘Comment culture: commentary as a medium’. With work by: Harm van den Dorpel, Constant Dullaart, F.A.T Lab, Martijn Hendriks, JoDi, Oliver Laric, NastyNets, Theodore Watson, e.a.

Curation: Elena Catalina Pérez

This project is supported by EACEA, AFK and NIMk
Special Thanks to: Meta.Live.Nu, PLANETART, DFM RTV INT, Archipel.nu, Virtual Holland, Freeteam, Beamsystems and all collaborating volunteers.

Mediamatic Travel

Mediamatic Travel is a DIY travel agency that stimulate international collaboration amongst cultural professionals and enhance the visibility of underground culture in cities online and offline.

Explore cities' local art scenes through the contributions of our guides. Contact them to make an appointment, and keep up with the international developments in Arts and Culture.

The Mediamatic Travel website acts as a network of cultural professionals from all over the world. It provides an open platform where they can exchange information about the unseen or underground culture in their city. Things you normally won't find in your average travel agency.
Our Guides

Mediamatic Travel's Guides are the core of the network. Every guide has their own guide page in which they can share their favorite cultural happenings in their cities. Guides take travelers on an online journey through the highlights of their city. Check out some of the guide pages in Guides.

If you wish to get a tour through the cultural underground from one of the
Mediamatic Travel's Guides, use the blue Be my Guide button to set up an appointment with the guide on the spot. Fill in your travel dates and specific interests.
Get a real guided tour for € 45.

Mediamatic Travel's Guides offer tailored consultations on the spot and will help you navigate through the art scene of their city according to your requests. For the first hour of a face-to-face consultation, there is a basic fee of € 45. In return, you should expect an extensive insight into the most exclusive events, scenes and personalities in the Arts and Culture of the city you are visiting.


To become a Mediamatic Travel Guide, consult the Help page.
Anymeta


Collaboration:
Mediamatic Foundation
Partizan Publik
Online Community & Content Management (Feb - Sept 2009): Elena Pérez

Video about Mediamatic

Think Ahead - Open Platform

09-05-2009, from 12:00 to 18:00

Video documentation of the contest


'Think Ahead! Open platform' is a contest organised by the Netherlands Media Art Institute on the ocassion of its '30th anniversary'. It aims at fostering cooperation between cultural agents and artists with regard to an unrealized art project/concept/idea exploring new territories and ideas in the field of media art and digital culture.

'Think Ahead! Open platform' invites artists, researchers and hackers active in the digital culture and based in the Netherlands, to present ideas that are currently under construction. After selection, up to 16 projects will be presented on the 'Think Ahead! Open Platform' during the open house weekend. Each participant will have 10 minutes to present the plan to the public and the jury, be it for instance a research projects culminating in publications, artworks, events, installations, performances, software/hardware tool for cultural purposes, online/offline publication or platform, etc. The key criteria for selection are innovation, authenticity, and sustainability. The project must fall within the digital art practices and be based on creative commons or libre software/hardware.

A jury of experts and representatives of some of the key media organization in the Netherlands will grant the most compelling projects with 2000 Euro enabling, and will also provide expert advise and technical assistance for the further development or actual realisation of the concept. The members of the jury might also consider to support with their expertise other concepts presented in this initiative if they find them interesting.

Members of Jury:
Susanne Jaschko, chief curator at NIMk www.nimk.nl
Floor van Spaendonck, director of Virtueel Platform www.virtueelplatform.nl
Alex Schaub, director of FabLab De Waag www.waag.org/project/fablab
Christine van den Horn, responsible of the programme at Media Guild
www.mediaguild.com

Organizer: Elena Pérez


Finalists

The Netherlands Media Art Institute (NIMk) is pleased to announce the finalists of ‘Think Ahead! Open Platform’. This award competition was conceived in the context of NIMk’s 30th anniversary with the aim of supporting the production of media art and other relevant contributions to digital culture. 'Open Innovation, Authentity and Sustainability' were the motto for this call for projects avid for realisation and expert advise.

On May 9, 2009, sixteen projects that fall within the territories of art, technology and FLOSS software were presented at NIMk during a very exciting, challenging and inspiring six-hours session. The jury of the competition formed by Susanne Jaschko (former chief curator at NIMk), Floor van Spaendonck (director of Virtueel Platform) and Alex Schaub (director of Fablab De Waag) gave out the following awards:


FIRST PRIZE (€ 2.000)

'ZXZW' by Joost Heijthuijsen, Erik Luyten & Barry Spooren

http://www.zxzw.nl/2009

ZXZW is a community on independent culture. It encourages cutting edge encounters, explorations and engagements from artists, audiences and partners. Established by a group of young artists based in Tilburg, it started as a music festival, but soon broadened its horizon to other disciplines like visual arts, contemporary dance and experimental film. ZXZW is driven by artistic development. It’s a place where artists, who practice questions or try to find the limits within the established methods of production, distribution and consumption, meet and engage with each other and the local environment. With 275 performances during one week and a mash-up of artistic visions, venues, media-partners and crowds the festival questions the concept of the peculiar and the familiar, and manoeuvres between kicks and contemplation.

To further stimulate the policy development of ZXZW, the organisation has made its whole business model transparent through Internet. Everybody who thinks they can contribute something to the festival can have a say in the organisation. It’s an open source business model that works the same way as Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org). ZXZW is the first festival organisation that applies this manner of open source policymaking, and therefore takes on a pioneering role. With this development we ask input of everyone who feels committed to the festival, with the policy development and with new digital interactivity. Because of this open source mentality, all the subsidy applications, annual reports and marketing plans are made public and adjustable for fresh perspectives. At this moment, the Social Festival Model is up and running at zxzw.wetpaint.com. In our own opinion, the Social Festival Model has to be further developed to acquire actual reason for existence.


FIRST HONORARY MENTION

'Treasuremapper ' by Tijmen Schep
www.netniet.org/treasuremapper/

Treasuremapper proposes a locative media platform that spams mobile phones and the Internet. At its core, the project consists of an open source mobile phone application that uses GPS to trigger the playing of different media depending on your physical location.

Treasuremapper will play media depending on your location. It compares your current GPS location to a pre-made map that tells the mobile application in which placed to trigger which media. Now, this is nothing new. Projects like Trading Mercator Stories and so many more do exactly the same. So then why build Treasuremapper? There are three reasons.

First of all, existing software is not open, Treasuremapper would be an open source application that all art projects can use and easily customise.

Secondly, these applications are often limited to relatively exotic platforms, often requiring exotic iPaq / Windows Mobile computers (in the case of the otherwise great mScapers platform) or certain Garmin GPS receivers (which focus on creating audiotours). Treasuremapper will work on a broad range of phones (including pretty much all Nokia smartphones, such as the N and E series), and will allow the triggering of sounds, text, images and video.

Thirdly, and most important, Treasuremapper will make it really easy to create these maps by integrating an online platform. Users will be able to define zones on a (Google) map, and then link those areas to media they upload to the Treasuremapper website. The treasuremapper mobile application then seamlessly downloads the content to the phone when necessary.


SECOND HONORARY MENTION

'Live Buoy' by Christina della Giustina and Patrick de Koning

www.dg-c.org/

'Live Buoy' marks the trajectory (current, velocity, digital hight etc.) of a drifting buoy that gathers live data from the water it floats upon for to render its trajectory, as well as its mean – the water itself - closely perceivable from an unusual, and itself moving point of view.

Since each fisherman has a particular color scheme for their buoys, the 'live buoy' envisioned is:

- transparent, so that view is provided for the network camera inside the 'live buoy'.

- equipped with a water-wind instrument that registers the buoy’s trajectory through its contact with the water and wind by its sound.

- solar-powered in order to register and communicate the data independently.
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The exact location of the 'live buoy', as well as its motion behavior, are calculated by satellite (GPS) and used to trace their trajectories. The real-time data gathered by satellite communication - together with the images and sounds the 'live buoys' generate from within their environment - communicate the 'live buoys' presence, position and motion, and by doing so, naturally, the water itself in immediate present tense. The real-time data, images, and sounds the 'live buoy' collects are streamed to w0lf’s server, and can be followed live on the projects' website. The project will work on a full screen version that might also be accessed by mobile devices (such as a mobile phone with internet connection), so people at shores or riverbanks can access the 'live buoy' directly on-site.